NFL Supplemental Draft 2012: Josh Gordon Pick Is Slap in the Face to Colt McCoy

The Cleveland Browns may have added an exciting talent through the NFL supplemental draft, but the hits just keep coming this offseason for Colt McCoy.

The 6’1” quarterback won 45 games at Texas, which was the all-time NCAA record before Boise State’s Kellen Moore set a higher mark. He led the Longhorns to the national championship game in his senior season, but had to leave and watch from the sidelines after injuring his shoulder in the first quarter. 

Since then, not a lot has gone his way. Despite having the perfect mentality for a QB, McCoy dropped in the draft due to concerns over his size. 

Browns’ president Mike Holmgren said that he would sit McCoy for his first season and let him acclimate to the NFL game. This certainly would have been the sensible thing to do, but circumstances did not allow for it to happen. 

Jake Delhomme, Cleveland’s Week 1 starter, and Seneca Wallace, the team’s backup, were both injured by Week 6, meaning McCoy would be thrown into the fire.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were his opponent, and he was sacked six times. The next week, he faced the defending champion New Orleans Saints. He did not have to do much as Drew Brees tossed four interceptions, but he played mistake-free football and the Browns pulled off an upset. 

The next game did not get any easier as he went up against the New England Patriots, but once again, McCoy avoided errors and pulled off an upset. The hits kept on coming as he had to play the New York Jets the very next week, and the Browns narrowly lost in overtime. 

Against four of the best teams in football, McCoy performed extremely well for his first four NFL starts ever.

But then he injured his ankle against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He showed remarkable toughness and played through the pain, which he had to do in the next three games.

McCoy played the last three games of the season, but failed to get a win. Two of his opponents were the Baltimore Ravens and the Steelers.

After a gritty performance in his rookie campaign, McCoy earned the starting job for 2011, except Cleveland did nothing in the offseason to improve the talent around him.

Peyton Hillis, who had a fine season in 2010, was non-existent in 2011. Greg Little had a decent year, but other than that, McCoy had little to work with at the skill positions. 

But the worst incident came in a Week 14 game against the Steelers, when McCoy took a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit from James Harrison. Despite suffering a concussion on the play, the Browns sent the QB back into the game. 

In two years, the Browns never gave McCoy a fair chance and decided that they were going to replace him this offseason. They aggressively pursued options to acquire the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, as noted by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, presumably to draft Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III. 

That did not pan out, but things looked optimistic for McCoy when the team picked running back Trent Richardson. Shortly after that, the Browns squashed his hopes and picked quarterback Brandon Weeden.

Taking a 28-year-old QB in the first round meant Cleveland was moving on from McCoy. The Browns do not have a large window to get productive years out of him. 

McCoy saw the starting job that he fought so hard to earn handed to a rookie, and he has had to sit by as the Browns have made aggressive moves to add talent to offense. 

The team drafted offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz in the second round, then took wide receiver Travis Benjamin in the fourth. Now, the Browns are sacrificing a second-round pick in next year’s draft to take Josh Gordon, who is a remarkable physical talent. 

All of these additions are to maximize the chance that Weeden will succeed, even though McCoy was the player who took the beating on a terrible Browns offense.

Holmgren, the front office and the coaching staff have treated McCoy with an undeserving amount of disrespect, and the least they could do is trade him to a decent team.